Book Clubs Column by Julie Hale

In this national bestseller, everybody's favorite science writer tells the story of his incredible Jewish family and the childhood he spent in England. Surrounded by relatives who encouraged his interest in nature, Sacks was strongly influenced by his Uncle Dave (the Tungsten of the title), who operated a light-bulb factory and introduced him to the wonder of metals. Offering a fascinating...

Growing up Jewish in the South

Nostalgia is an impoverishing emotion; it robs our memory of all its complexity, writes Louis Rubin Jr. There were no Good Old Days: my father's generation knew that very well. Yet we are our memory, and we exist in Time. RubinÃ”s memories are the basis of his new book, My Father's People (LSU, $22.50, 139 pages ISBN 0807128082). A noted editor, novelist, teacher and publisher who founded...

Memoir from a political maverick

If Arizona Sen. John McCain is using his new memoir Worth the Fighting For to position himself for another run for the presidency, then he is either the dumbest or the foxiest campaigner in the race. Arguing for the former point is the fact that he readily sometimes gleefully admits to being ambitious, impatient, impulsive, politically mercurial and, under certain circumstances, deceptive. Of...

Remembering a first-class First Lady

This combined history and memoir by her grandson arrives on the 40th anniversary of Eleanor Roosevelt's death. Remarkable for her intellect, energy and compassion, the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt has left a legacy, her chronicler argues, that is fully as durable in its own way as the one compiled by FDR as he led America through the Great Depression and all but the last few months...

Surviving the agony of defeat

To the winners go the sports biographies; to the losers go the deathly quiet locker rooms, the self-flagellation, the proverbial kiss from your sister. As a result, we know a whole lot more about the thrill of victory than the agony of defeat.Pat Conroy didn't set out to rectify that inequity by writing My Losing Season, a painfully detailed...

September paperback releases offer good choices for reading groups

America's favorite Southern author returns with a delightfully down-home look at the life of his ornery grandfather, Charlie Bundrum, a tough-as-nails moonshiner and roofer who along with his equally ornery wife Ava raised seven children in the backwoods of Alabama. Bragg, who never knew his grandfather, interviewed a slew of relatives about Charlie, a man admired for his family loyalty, his...

America's favorite teacher is back

<B>America's favorite teacher is back</B> Torey Hayden thought she had seen it all. As a veteran special-education teacher, she was used to working with children whose disabilities ranged from autism to Tourette's syndrome. But she had never met anyone like Venus Fox. In her latest book, <B>Beautiful Child: The Story of a Child Trapped in Silence and the Teacher Who Refused to...

Those good old golden rule days

While in high school in 1969, Mark Edmundson knew what he wanted from life. Although he seemed destined to the fate of many in his working-class Boston suburb days of labor broken by nights of drinking and pool playing he had one great love: football. In practice, he was a warrior, initiated into the cult of manhood by coaches for whom pain was a myth, sweat the coin of the realm and victory...

Revisiting a childhood classic

I still remember when my elementary school librarian pointed out that the Little House series was shelved in the fiction section. It blew my 10-year-old mind. Did that mean that Laura Ingalls Wilder—whose braids and spunk I spent the better part of my childhood emulating—hadn’t really almost starved during the long winter, or fought with nasty Nellie Oleson, or fallen in love...

Wild things: a naturalist's love story

<B>Wild things: a naturalist's love story</B> In her new memoir <B>Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild</B>, Renee Askins, who founded The Wolf Fund in 1986, demonstrates the kind of deep natural wisdom and sense of awe at the wild that has distinguished writers like Edwin Muir, Annie Dillard and Aldo Leopold. Founded with the primary goal of...